MEETING WITH EU AMBASSADORS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 004995

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/23/2017
TAGS: PGOV PK PREL
SUBJECT: MEETING WITH EU AMBASSADORS

REF: ISLAMABAD 4992

ISLAMABAD 00004995 001.6 OF 002


Classified By: Anne W. Patterson, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d)


1. (C) Summary: Ambassador met with several EU ambassadors
November 22 to brief them on the Deputy Secretary's recent
visit and encourage their nations' continued support for
election observer missions. See reftel requesting demarche
in Brussels. The group agreed on goals of: (1) on-time
elections; (2) Musharraf's resignation as Chief of ARMY Staff
before taking the presidential oath of office; and (3)
lifting of the state of emergency as soon as possible. End
summary.


2. (C) The Ambassador met November 22 with her counterparts
from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and the U.K., as well as the charge d'affaires
from Germany. Spanish Ambassador Jose Maria Robles-Fraga
requested the meeting in light of the Deputy Secretary's
November 16-18 visit and subsequent meetings with Pakistan
People's Party (PPP) leader Benazir Bhutto by the Ambassador
and British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley.


3. (C) Ambassador briefed on the Deputy Secretary's message
that the U.S. did not believe credible elections could be
held under a state of emergency and that detainees should be
released and media restrictions lifted. Portuguese
Ambassador Antonio Jose da Camara Ramalho Ortigao asked why
the USG was not insisting on the reinstatement of the
judiciary. Ambassador, with some concurrence in the group,
noted that reinstatement of the justices, particularly of
former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, would be rejected by
President Musharraf and that it would seriously detract from
free elections and getting the state of emergency lifted.
French Ambassador Regis de Belenet cautioned that Chaudhry's
character had been called into question, including by Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan leader Asma Jahangir. British
High Commissioner Brinkley added: "We should not waste our
efforts trying to restore the judiciary."


4. (C) The Ambassador used this meeting to urge the EU
countries to avoid "pre-emptive withdrawal" from elections
monitoring and pro-democracy initiatives. She noted that the
European Commission appeared to be threatening to cancel its
observer mission to Pakistan's January 8 parliamentary
elections before the country's political parties had decided
whether to participate (reftel). Brinkley said that during
his November 21 meeting, Bhutto said she was still undecided
on a boycott. Bhutto told Brinkley that only nine of her 27
Central Executive Committee members were supporting an
election boycott, though she would make the final decision.
For now, Bhutto was leaving her options open and her demands
purposely hazy.


5. (C) Concerning the eventual return of the other former
prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Brinkley said that the EU had
called for a "level playing field" for all political parties
and leaders, "which includes Nawaz." Rumors of Sharif's
imminent return was "just a hope" by Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz supporters, he believed, but so far there did
not appear to be any concrete decision by Nawaz Sharif.


6. (C) Several of the ambassadors -- from the Netherlands,
France, Portugal -- asked variations of the same rhetorical
question: "How is it possible to send observers to an
election under a state of emergency?" The Ambassador
reiterated that such a decision could be made in the future,
but, for now, the EC and bilateral missions should be
encouraged to send more election experts, not fewer or none.
The ambassadors agreed that, while Musharraf probably did not
want international observers, he had publicly welcomed them
and would now have to accommodate their requests for access
and transparency even more than before.


7. (C) The Ambassador stressed the areas of international
consensus: (1) on-time elections; (2) Musharraf's resignation
as Chief of ARMY Staff before taking the presidential oath of
office; and (3) lifting of the state of emergency as soon as
possible. The Spanish ambassador agreed that reinstatement
of former Chief Justice Chaudhry should not be the EC's
priority, but pushing for the release of lawyers, human
rights activists and political party workers should be. He

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then noted that there was talk of the lawyers' movement
transforming itself into a political party in order to
contest the parliamentary elections.


8. (C) Brinkley said that several detainees had been released
by the GOP since the beginning of the week. He stated that
several could claim to have been man-handled during their
arrests, but that there had been no reports of mistreatment
of these detainees while under arrest. Often, as with the
recent case of Karachi journalists, they had provoked police
reaction.


9. (C) As he had in previous conversations with the
Ambassador, Dutch envoy Cornelis Wilhelmus Andreae asked: "Is
Musharraf still the right man to fight terrorism?" British
High Commissioner Brinkley noted that there had not been a
suicide bombing in Pakistan since November 3. Spanish
Ambassador Robles-Fraga added that a recent article in a
jihadi newspaper had called for support in the Swat region,
and several would-be suicide bombers had heeded the call,
according to his sources.


10. (C) Lastly, most ambassadors noted that, like it or not,
they had already received instructions from their respective
capitals to attend Musharraf's swearing-in ceremony as the
civilian president.


11. (C) Comment: Reftel asks the Department to instruct the
U.S. Mission to the EU to urge the EC against canceling its
planned observer mission prematurely. End comment.

PATTERSON